Positive stories about the Health Service
Treating people with mental health problems as partners, not patients, is having
positive results. By David Brindle Guardian
Wednesday November 7, 2001
Breast cancer screening 'really does save lives' Study hailed for ending two
year controversy over benefits. Sarah Boseley, health editor Guardian
Friday March 15, 2002
Breast cancer patients win right to life-prolonging drug. Decision to
fund Herceptin ends 'postcode prescribing'. James Meikle, health
correspondent Guardian
Saturday March 16, 2002
'Overall, I don't know how many people I've actually saved' Steve Evans, 46,
began as an ambulanceman in 1971. Based in Runcorn, he works for Mersey
Regional Ambulance Service NHS Trust as a community paramedic and is among the
nominees for Public Servant of the Year. Guardian
Unlimited Monday April 1, 2002
Somerset survey positive on the impact of integrated care. David
Brindle Guardian
Wednesday April 10, 2002
Government nears key NHS target Guardian
Society Wednesday April 10, 2002
UK is 'world leader' on falling cancer deaths. Guardian
Wednesday July 3, 2002
Somerset's integrated mental health trust has meant less bureaucracy and
easier access to services, reports David Batty. And users' groups welcome the
greater opportunities for contact with senior managers. Society
Wednesday July 24, 2002
Grassroots bear fruit. Guardian
Wednesday July 31, 2002. Waiting times: dermatology nurse biopsy at
Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham University NHS trust
An extraordinary 91% of users are satisfied with their GP and 90% of parents
with their primary school, according to a Mori survey commissioned by the
government. Guardian
Thursday August 1, 2002
There has been a dramatic fall in the number of NHS patients waiting more
than a year for an operation, according to evidence published by health
ministers yesterday. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Saturday
January 11, 2003 The Guardian
Patients' food finally off the critical list. Merope Mills and John
Carvel
Thursday February 27, 2003 The Guardian
NHS heart plan saves 6,000 lives a year. Sarah Boseley, health editor
Tuesday
March 4, 2003 The Guardian
The number of people waiting more than 12 months to be admitted to hospital
in England has fallen by 20,000 over the past year, the government said today.
Friday March 7, 2003
The public health minister's speech to the cancer services collaborative
conference in Birmingham .
Friday March 7, 2003
NHS investment produces results. Leader
Wednesday March 12, 2003 The Guardian
Britain's doctors are about to announce a breakthrough. They have agreed on
what information should go into our online medical records. Michael Cross
Thursday
April 3, 2003 The Guardian
More than 350 biomedical advances - diagnostic tests, drugs, treatments and
vaccines - have begun clinical trials since scientists began to "read" the
instruction book of life that is the human genome. Tim Radford
Monday
April 14, 2003 The Guardian
The health service is showing "real improvements", treating more patients
and cutting waiting times, the NHS chief executive, Nigel Crisp, claimed today
in his annual progress report. Tash Shifrin
Friday May 16, 2003
The NHS is making real progress so why does its annual report pick and mix
statistics in an apparent bid to enhance the picture, asks Tash Shifrin.
Friday May 16, 2003
Milburn says NHS reaching inpatient target. David Batty
Friday May 16, 2003
The NHS in-patient waiting list for England has fallen below a million for
the first time in 10 years, bringing the first hard evidence of increasing
hospital throughput. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Saturday May 17, 2003 The Guardian
A hands-on approach to solving problems is expected to bring improvements
from health to recycling. Rebecca Smithers, Sarah Boseley, John Carvel, Felicity
Lawrence and Andrew Clark
Monday
May 19, 2003 The Guardian
Government advisers yesterday cleared the way for more patients with
advanced forms of common cancers to treat themselves at home rather than have
chemotherapy in hospitals. James Meikle, health correspondent
Wednesday May 28, 2003 The Guardian
Breast cancer diagnoses hit all-time high but death rates fall. Sarah
Boseley, health editor
Tuesday
June 3, 2003 The Guardian
The oldest and still the best. Malcolm Dean
Wednesday July 16, 2003 The Guardian
Nearly 124,000 people gave up smoking last year after receiving help from
the NHS, exceeding government targets to reduce the number of smokers, according
to figures published today. David Batty
Thursday July 24, 2003
The number of hospitals awarded the top rating for both cleanliness and food
standards has more than doubled in a year, figures revealed today.
Wednesday August 13, 2003
The so-called "three-minute hysterectomy" was officially declared safe for
patients yesterday, raising the possibility that the high numbers of women who
have their entire wombs removed because of menstrual problems could now fall.
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Thursday August 28, 2003 The Guardian
The government is considering an audacious offer by the chief executive of a
London hospital trust to wipe out the entire waiting list for routine heart
surgery in England within the next 12 months. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Thursday September 4, 2003 The Guardian
The number of people waiting for an NHS operation is now at its lowest level
for more than 10 years, the government claimed today.
Friday October 3, 2003
The NHS was given a much-needed boost today after an independent health
thinktank said it had every confidence in the organisation's ability to improve
quality of care.
Thursday November 27, 2003
Waiting times at a north-west London accident and emergency department have
been slashed through a project bringing GPs into casualty, a report published
today revealed. Tash Shifrin
Friday December 12, 2003
The waiting time for heart surgery has fallen to just three weeks in some
parts of Britain, in what is seen as a ground-breaking example of how the NHS
can cut into the queues for treatment. Jo Revill and Gaby Hinsliff
Sunday December 21, 2003 The Observer
Vaccine 'could block lung cancer'.
BBC News Friday 20
February, 2004
Vaccine 'boosts cancer survival' for kidney cancer.
BBC News Friday 20
February, 2004
The NHS is "turning the corner" over cancer diagnosis and treatments, the
government's national cancer director, Mike Richards, said yesterday. James
Meikle
Saturday March 6, 2004 The Guardian
The annual NHS winter crisis is set to become a thing of the past due to
increased numbers of hospital beds and better care planning, the government's
emergency access tsar said today. David Batty
Tuesday March 23, 2004
NHS hospitals in England survived huge pressure on their casualty
departments in the winter with the shortest trolley waits in recent years, the
government's emergency care tsar said yesterday. John Carvel
Wednesday March 24, 2004 The Guardian
The possibility that virtually no one under 65 will die from heart disease
in 10 years' time was floated by the government yesterday. The projections of
almost zero premature fatalities, a remarkable medical as well as political
victory if achieved, came in a document proclaiming the NHS was winning the war
on the condition that kills 110,000 people a year in England. James Meikle,
health correspondent
Thursday March 25, 2004 The Guardian
Malcolm Dean on some good news: the NHS is making progress on dealing with
chronic illness.
Wednesday April 21, 2004 The Guardian
Hospital waiting times are continuing to fall, the NHS chief executive, Sir
Nigel Crisp, said today in his annual report. Tash Shifrin
Friday May 7, 2004
Sir Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive, freighted his annual report -
published last week - with statistics to demonstrate that "something really
significant is happening in the NHS". Expect those statistics, others like them
and exhaustive accompanying analysis to saturate the media between now and the
general election. Performance data on the whole of the public sector, and the
NHS in particular, will be integral to judging the government's effectiveness
when it faces the voters.
Thursday May 13, 2004
The huge effort and enormous sums invested in the health service are paying
off, with real improvements and greater satisfaction among patients, says a
report from the NHS modernisation board published yesterday. The board, which
includes heads of royal colleges and health authority and charity chief
executives, says that the NHS has made great strides in the past four years, but
that there is still a long way to go until all patients get high-quality care.
Sarah Boseley
Wednesday May 19, 2004 The Guardian
Blair should trumpet the NHS revival, not threaten more disruption. Polly
Toynbee
Wednesday May 19, 2004 The Guardian
Tony Blair took to the roof of London's new £422m University College
Hospital yesterday to convince voters that treatment was improving for millions.
Friday May 28, 2004 The Guardian
A resource centre at a GPs' surgery is allowing patients to find out more
about living with long-term conditions. By Mark Gould
Wednesday September 8, 2004 The Guardian
The NHS has been sitting on a pool of ideas. Now, writes Juliet Rix, it is
realising the potential of staff, from porters to consultants, to improve
healthcare and bring in commercial gains.
Thursday September 9, 2004 The Guardian
Huge progress has been made in the battle against prostate cancer, with
better treatment for patients, more money spent on research and an increase of
specialists coming into the NHS, the government claims today. A new report into
the disease reveals that more than 98% of patients with suspected prostate
cancer are now seen by a consultant within two weeks of being referred by their
GP, compared with 40% in 1997. Annie Kelly
Tuesday
November 9, 2004
Hospital waiting list times have fallen to their lowest level for 17 years,
according to statistics released yesterday by the Department of Health. Sarah
Hall, political correspondent
Saturday
November 13, 2004 The Guardian
A medical trial? Good, I'll take part in anything that turns this into
something more than being ill. Dina Rabinovitch
Tuesday
November 16, 2004 The Guardian
A tailor-made service for a better outcome. More efficient use of
information gathered by primary care trusts can provide patients with better
health care. Saba Salman looks at the benefits of 'intelligent commissioning'.
Wednesday November 17, 2004 The Guardian
The NHS in England has cut its waiting list by more than a third since 1998
and is on course to reduce the maximum wait to six months next year, its chief
executive, Sir Nigel Crisp, said yesterday. His annual report showed that the
service is starting to reap the benefits of a £20bn budget increase over the
past three years, including falling death rates from the main killer diseases
and high levels of patient satisfaction. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Saturday
December 4, 2004 The Guardian
A million patients give their verdict today on the state of the NHS, finding
big improvements in the government's priority areas such as cancer, but saying
there is much to do before healthcare becomes truly patient centred. The
findings of the independent Picker Institute will feed into the election debate
on the NHS because they give the first, and possibly only really coherent, view
of what people who use hospitals and GP services think of their experience. The
institute has been involved in running the national patient survey programme for
the NHS in England since 1998. Sarah Boseley, health editor
Monday
April 18, 2005 The Guardian
The government today published figures showing a drop in the number of
patients waiting for an operation. Roxanne Escobales
Friday May 13, 2005
Breast cancer treatments designed to prevent a return of the disease after
surgery have had a dramatic impact on the long-term survival of women,
scientists report today. James Meikle, health correspondent
Friday May 13, 2005 The Guardian
Health of a nation: what you said. The Healthcare Commission carries out
regular independent surveys of patient experience to find out how English people
rate their health service. And this time the results are looking up, says David
Brindle.
Wednesday June 15, 2005 The Guardian
All the attributes spelled disaster. The project was conceived in a hurry,
to meet political deadlines. The agency handed the job was up to its eyes in
other projects; so was the prime contractor. The users were an
independent-minded body of professionals with a record of resisting new systems.
This was the background to one of the more remarkable government IT projects of
recent years. Qmas, the quality management and analysis system, allows NHS
patients for the first time to find out how good their doctor is. It is also
building up a unique database showing the spread of common chronic diseases,
based on information from real patients. The remarkable thing about Qmas is that
it works. It was installed on schedule to nearly 8,500 GP practices. Michael
Cross
Thursday September 8, 2005 The Guardian
The health minister Lord Warner yesterday claimed the government was on
course to meet its target of no patient in England waiting over six months for
hospital treatment. Figures showed that at the end of November there were 12,300
people waiting more than six months for treatment, a drop of 12,600 from the
previous month and down by 49,800 on November last year. The total waiting list
for treatment now stands at 774,300. Yesterday's figures showed that at the end
of November there were 22 patients waiting over nine months for treatment, with
four waiting over a year.
Saturday December 31, 2005 The Guardian
Maybe it is foolhardy to swim against the tide of odium that threatens to
engulf Connecting for Health, the government's £6.2bn programme to equip the NHS
in England with advanced IT. But, having spent a couple of mornings watching
various parts of the project working well, it seems right to voice a more
positive view. From the patient's perspective, some of what is being done is
brilliant. John Carvel
Wednesday January 18, 2006 The Guardian
NHS hits tough
waiting list goals. The NHS has reduced the maximum wait for an outpatient
appointment to 13 weeks and has almost eliminated waits of more than six months
for an in-patient operation. At the end of last year there were only 12 English
patients who had waited longer than 6 months for treatment. But within this
target the overall numbers waiting rose as hospitals delayed operations into the
next financial year to save money. The overall figure rose from 763,700 at the
end of November to 770,000 at the end of December. The number waiting between
three and five months rose by almost 27,000. It has also emerged that English
NHS trusts favour English patients over the Scots and Welsh, as 938 Scottish and
Welsh patients - whose healthcare is commissioned in those countries - have
waited over six months for treatment in English hospitals (compared to the 12
English patients). Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Financial Times 4
February 2006
Drop in Scottish
NHS waiting times praised. An Audit Scotland report has shown that the
number of people waiting more than six months for surgery has fallen by nearly
90% since 2001. Figures for people waiting more than six months to see a
specialist have fallen by almost 80% since 2004. Audit Scotland called this
"substantial progress", but said greater efficiency was needed to cut the costs
involved in reducing waits. Last year the NHS spent more than £116m on waiting
time initiatives, which included using private clinics and drafting in surgeons
and other medical staff for extra operations at weekends. The Scottish Executive
is promising a maximum 18-week wait by the end of next year. Holyrood SNP leader
Nicola Sturgeon pointed to comments in the report on the "relatively high cost"
of using the private sector: "The private sector may provide short-term fixes
for [Scottish Health Minister] Andy Kerr, but it does so at a disproportionate
cost and by taking money away from the NHS." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 17
February 2006
Record fall in
waiting times. Hospital waiting times in
Scotland have fallen to the lowest level on record, Health Minister Andy
Kerr has claimed. Figures published by the Scottish Executive show that on March
31, no patients in Scotland with a guarantee had waited more than six months for
inpatient/ day case treatment or for a
first outpatient appointment. The number of outpatients with a guarantee who
waited more than 18 weeks to be seen was down by 69% over the past year. The
number of inpatient/ day cases waiting
more than 18 weeks fell by 46%. However, the figures also showed that median
waiting times are continuing to increase.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Public Finance 2 June 2006
Patients'
satisfaction with the NHS is growing, survey shows. The latest survey by the
NHS watchdog body, the Healthcare Commission, shows that patients' satisfaction
with the care they get in hospital has risen. The survey of more than 80 000
inpatients in 169 trusts in England found that 92% rated their care as
excellent, very good, or good. The previous year this percentage was 90%. Nearly
four in five patients (79%) said they were always treated with dignity and
respect.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
British Medical Journal 2 June 2006
A foundation trust in
Somerset appears to have discovered how to crack the problem of NHS waiting
lists. If all goes according to plan, every patient attending Yeovil district
hospital will be treated within 18 weeks of being referred there by a GP. The
trust's clinicians expect to achieve that goal by the end of March. John
Carvel
Wednesday July 5, 2006 The Guardian
Patients happier
than public with NHS. Patients continually report higher levels of
satisfaction with NHS services than the public as a whole according to the NHS
Confederation. Reasons behind the gap may be explained by the similarity in
satisfaction with GP services, around 80%, as this is the area the public most
commonly encounter and report back upon. However most patients who use other
parts of the NHS are satisfied, yet tend to think of themselves as lucky,
believing that services in their area are good but unreflective of the NHS as a
whole. Polling also suggests a correlation between satisfaction with the NHS and
support for the government. Nigel Edwards, the confederation's policy director
said: "The public has become distrustful when confronted with evidence of
improvement in the NHS." He warned that the gulf between public and patient
perception could be dangerous because the NHS "could be abandoned simply because
people believe it can never improve", when in reality significant improvements
in care were being made.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 19 September 2006
'Fewer than ever'
patients waiting for NHS operations. The number of patients waiting more
than 26 weeks for an NHS operation has dropped to an all time low: only 115
patients in August, according to the Department of Health. However there was a
small increase in those waiting over 13 and 20 weeks and larger increases in
those waiting 11 weeks, up by 9,400 in a month, and 8 weeks, up 11.1%. The
Department of Health however dismissed the rises as no more than a seasonal
"blip" that had been seen before and added that the average wait for treatment
was only eight weeks.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 30 September 2006
The NHS has met almost all the tough cancer waiting times targets set by the
government six years ago, a report from the cancer tsar will say today. It
reveals that nobody suspected of having the disease waits more than a month for
treatment after seeing a consultant, and more than two months from the date of
being referred by their GP. Sarah Boseley, health editor
Thursday
October 5, 2006 The Guardian
'Best ever'
waiting times hailed. NHS
Scotland has met its target of treating patients within six months of
diagnosis. The latest statistics revealed that the health service was also on
course to reduce treatment times to 18 weeks by the end of this year. However,
in cancer waiting times after the NHS failed to meet a target of treating 95% of
patients within 62 days. A& E
departments were meeting the four-hour target between arrival and admission,
transfer or discharge on 90% of occasions, with one-third of departments already
above 98%. The Scottish Conservatives said the average wait for an outpatient
had increased from 47 weeks in 1999 to 51 weeks in the latest figures. With
inpatients, the median wait had increased from 35 weeks to 46 weeks in the same
period. The Scottish National Party claimed the figures showed that 33,951
patients were now on hidden waiting lists and all cancers combined showed that
one in 5 patients still fell outside the two-month target. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 29 November 2006
Organic group reveals recipe for better hospital meals. A national
blueprint to raise the poor standards of NHS hospital food was published today,
highlighting regional good practice that has already transformed patients'
meals. The Soil Association report, Fresh food, fresh thinking, points out the
achievements of a pioneering partnership between the organic food lobby group
and NHS trusts in Cornwall. It has succeeded in providing tasty hospital meals -
made from fresh, locally sourced and organic ingredients - to patients without
increasing costs, countering the alarming national picture of poor take-up and
inadequate nutrition from hospital meals. Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs
correspondent
Tuesday
May 8, 2007 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
Actually, the NHS is making a remarkable recovery. The Observer's
Whitehall editor, who covered health for 12 years, believes the improvement in
care has been astonishing. Jo Revill
Sunday
May 20, 2007 The Observer
Success and progress in A&E. Over the last year the NHS has continued
to deliver the fastest ever access to A&E treatment, figures released today from
the Department of Health show.
Care and Health
22 May 2007
NHS Lothian achieves lowest ever level of delayed discharge, national
figures show. The number of people kept in
Lothian hospitals for non-clinical reasons has dropped to the lowest level
since national record-keeping began, according to new figures from ISD Scotland.
Care & Health 8 June 2007
Record-breaking Ambulance service hits new heights. The performance
of the
Welsh Ambulance Service is the best its ever been since it was formed in
1998 - and its getting better all the time.
Care & Health 8 June 2007
Online observation. A 'virtual' ward, with a full range of health
specialists, is helping to prevent patients most at risk being admitted to
hospital [Croydon].
Joanna Lyall
Wednesday June 13, 2007 Guardian
A precious provision. We were unlucky in the tragic hand dealt to our
son, but blessed to have had British healthcare. Carol Nahra
Thursday July 12, 2007 The Guardian [Great
Ormond Street]
A happy birthday every day. These mothers have enjoyed a standard of
care in pregnancy that most British women can only dream of. Lucy Atkins on the
NHS's most talked about midwives.
Tuesday
July 24, 2007 The Guardian
Pleasing conclusion. A successful collaboration gives people control
over end-of-life decisions and keeps hospital beds free. Mark Gould
Wednesday October 17, 2007 The Guardian
NHS financial and performance management is getting better with
improvements against many key targets. The performance of the NHS is
improving against key targets and boards are managing their finances better,
however, the service needs to improve performance reporting so the impact of
public spending is clear. An Audit
Scotland report, Overview of Scotland's health and NHS performance in
2006/07, finds that the NHS is making good progress against many of its key
targets, including waiting times, and that the financial performance of the NHS
has improved.
Care & Health 19 December 2007
For all the
carping, at the age of 60 the NHS is looking in rude good health. An opinion
piece by Polly Toynbee in The Guardian reads: The NHS might never have lived to
see its 60th birthday this year. Often its ill-wishers could point to its
failures as good reasons to disband it. Remember the out-of-control overspends,
brutal underfunding and annual winter ward closures. Soaring waiting lists have
suited consultants' private practice and union strikes have locked patients out
of hospitals. It's never good enough - but the NHS is in surprisingly robust
health. Alan Johnson visits a hospital a week: this time it was Nottingham
University Hospital Trust, which had a hair-raising year at £60m in the red,
shedding 700 posts and screeching in on target, now in surplus. (Johnson is
generous in gratitude to Patricia Hewitt, who took the flak for squeezing debt
out.) Staff were despondent last year, but are picking up now. There is an
infection problem, but a specialist team was called in and 40 more cleaners
hired. Overall this is a typical hospital, up in the top 40 - and a good a place
to take the NHS pulse. Here, two projects signal the NHS's new direction. No
more turbulent Blairite restructurings, but attention instead to the detail of
treating patients. Take the productive ward scheme. The ward manager, a nurse,
has reorganised everything so that colleagues spend 40% more time nursing - no
longer interrupted on average 115 times a shift, with less form-filling and no
more hunting for supplies. Next, the stroke department, which now has ambulance
drivers who suspect someone has a stroke bringing in patients direct, bypassing
other hospitals and A& E. Instant
scans and thrombolytic drugs save hundreds of lives and prevent crippling
disability - a reason why centralising specialism works. Out of the minister's
earshot, a cancer doctor complains that hitting targets can mean missing the
point, but still he concludes: "I wouldn't be without them. We'd never have had
the resources to see all patients within two weeks without a target." Some 99.7%
of suspected cancers nationally now hit the two-week mark; it was only 63%
before 1997. David Cameron this week made targets a key battleground, promising
to abolish them, leaving it to the market to choose the best treatments. But
hospital staff shook their heads: however infuriating they are, abandoning
targets would mean backsliding. Are targets good for governments
? Labour wanted progress to be visible, and benchmarks were set high.
Waiting times were the top complaint in 1997, but with the targets all but
achieved and the average at nine weeks later this year, worry about waiting has
plummeted. Infection is the top concern, but if that continues to fall something
else will take its place. Voters don't do gratitude. Labour forgot that targets
can't measure vital things. Neither Nottingham's better nursing, nor the stroke
unit that saves so much disability, would appear on any scale of NHS
improvement. Office for National Statistics measures of "productivity" count
numbers in and out, not quality. So when Cameron claims the NHS shows too little
value for triple the money spent, for the 79,000 more nurses, 30,000 hospital
doctors and 6,000 more GPs, there is no real proof either way. Nor can patients
tell, because they weren't the same patients 10 years ago. Research shows
patients tell at least 10 people about a bad treatment but only one or two about
a good experience. Bad anecdotes ricochet around for years, yet polls show 80%
of hospital patients report good treatment. It's hard to find any professional
observer who doesn't think the NHS is better - if, alas, not measurably so. A
report to be published soon shows the UK moving up international league tables
for avoiding treatable deaths. If the year ahead is easier than the last, with
surpluses replacing deficits, Johnson still has plenty on his plate: the hardest
is controlling infection. He wants a three-year pay deal with NHS staff - but it
can't stay within 2%. He will make GPs open on Saturdays or evenings, and 60
hospital amalgamations now on ice must be resolved. Gordon Brown's NHS "rights
and responsibilities" constitution may be extra trouble. If it suggests
elections to local PCTs, that's of less public interest than nice receptionists
and kindly nursing. If it sets legal rights so patients can sue, that will be
disastrous for all but the lawyers - but it risks looking spineless if it
doesn't. Meanwhile, pollster Mori reports that public perceptions of the NHS now
track what people feel about the government, not the other way around, which is
discouraging. However, Cameron won't score such easy NHS hits this year. He
faces tougher scrutiny. He promises local control, with a market deciding
locally on standards as patients vote with their feet. Yet he warns on the BBC's
Today programme that his candidates will make war over all closures. These are
clearly incompatible. Would he support a campaign to keep open a hospital that
has lost some patients so it is no longer viable, though still beloved by other
patients ? Who chooses in the end -
markets, local patients or local professionals, who know where results are best
? Johnson now refers every contested closure to a doctor-lead independent
reconfiguration panel; will Cameron ignore their recommendations and fight for
every unit regardless of both medical evidence and markets
? Cameron promises an "independent" NHS at the top, but who accounts to
parliament for taxpayers' money ? As
Bevan observed glumly, every bedpan bounces back to Whitehall. One NHS managers'
leader recently had to struggle through protesters to visit the Hungarian health
minister, who grumbled he had no say over the closure of a small hospital. It
was owned by the local authority with patients sent there by an entirely
independent insurance company, but still patients came protesting to his door,
as they always will. This is the year Cameron can no longer get away with
populist hit-and-run phrases on "choice" and "independence". On the NHS as on
everything else, he must spell out the detail or look increasingly frivolous. So
2008 will be a plum year for NHS politics, as Cameron and Brown both recognised
this week. Battle lines have been blurred by Labour's espousal of markets,
choice and independent treatment centres. Brown's needless fear of being seen to
do a U-turn on Blair reforms weakens Labour's cutting edge. But clearer
differences will emerge as Cameron lets the local market rip, and Labour
focuses, at long last, on what happens to patients. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Guardian
4 January 2008
|